Highlands team is playing their hearts out, perhaps it is time to give them some room. Tough season.

NCC's only misstep last night was their student section playfully starting the "Let's Play Football" chant briefly. They are a very good team that played very well. Nice to see lots of kids that I watched in grade school and AAU performing at this level.

 

To the NCC fans: any JV or Varsity players that also play football? I know Franzen plays, but not sure about the rest.

 

Senior Jake Haas, Soph Brandon Gray and Soph Logan Neff play football in addition to Franzen. I believe that Seth Freppon plays soccer. Colin DuPont and Drew McDonald are golfers. I am not sure any others play a fall sport.

Quick simple question since this was my first NCC/HHS basketball game. Is it customary for the coaches to stand off to the side and not shake the hands of the opposing teams players after the starting lineups are announced and they “fist pound” the refs? Is this part of the whole “backyard brawl” thing?

 

No it is not. Highlands has not done it all year that I am aware of.

NewCath 17-14 at half

NewCath 27-16 end of 3rd.

NewCath 37-34 final.

 

It doesn't look like Highlands comes out firing on all cylinders after the half.....

 

JV - 2 3rd quarter points

Varsity - 0 3rd quarter points

A common theme with this program has been lack of offense going back 3 yrs. When Stewart and Crowley were Srs they scored 27 pts in a loss to Male at the Ashland tournament. Last yr they could barely break 50 pts. This yrthey get stuck on a number and have 5 min scoring droughts.

 

What is it? 3 yrs of Poor shooters? An offense that doesnt work? Injuries? Lack of skill development in the summer? YAll you gotta do is stop by The Hill on any summer evening and you will see Jimmy Pangallo working on individual drills with the Breds players. On any given morning at 6am you can stop by CovCath and you will find several Colonels doing a shootaround.

It doesn't look like Highlands comes out firing on all cylinders after the half.....

 

JV - 2 3rd quarter points

Varsity - 0 3rd quarter points

 

Watch em warm up before the 2nd half starts. Its a joke.

 

Walking around firjng up slow motion shots. 3 starters didnt even shoot last Night they went over and sat on the bench including my son. I almost went over and threw a ball at him to make him get up. No reason one of the coaches Couldnt tell those guys to get up and work on some shots you May take in the game. He's lost em.

Senior Jake Haas, Soph Brandon Gray and Soph Logan Neff play football in addition to Franzen. I believe that Seth Freppon plays soccer. Colin DuPont and Drew McDonald are golfers. I am not sure any others play a fall sport.

 

Haas, Gray and Neff are non factors and thats not a slight to them ITA just there is so much basketball talent in front of them that they dont factor in.

 

Franzen is a nice cross athlete. Its a shame he and Weyer didnt come to Highlands.

During pregame, my son, who knows nothing about either team, said that Highlands couldn't hit a shot. He said that NewCath was not missing. That is exactly how the game started. I really believe that this is one of the best NewCath teams of the last 25+ years. They have a lot of options to go along with size, an athletic PG, and a veteran 2G. Seibert gives them even more length then they had last night. Equally important is that they have 3 guys come off of the bench that know their roles and play within them.

I've gotta weigh in here.........first, I happen to like Coach Flynn (but not as enthused with the assts) but the state of affairs w/b-ball at HHS are dangerously close to reaching critical. This game serves as reflection of many of these ills. Namely, NCC's program begins with a dedication of a number of basketball players (first sport) that HHS doesn't enjoy, it also includes a year round work ethic that begins with a coaching staff that provides year round opportunities and support (a lotta love for "their" boys) and another factor is the true support of the entire school (let's not kid anyone, this means recognition for those participating in the program, resources, and faculty/parent/student body support). Lacking in these and a few other things creates an environment at HHS that is obviously not effective at this point in time.

 

Coaching, support, opportunity are some of the reasons why kids like B.Weyer added the gold to his uniform. Unless something changes, HHS will continue to share football glory and pay to watch regional championships played..............

I've gotta weigh in here.........first, I happen to like Coach Flynn (but not as enthused with the assts) but the state of affairs w/b-ball at HHS are dangerously close to reaching critical. This game serves as reflection of many of these ills. Namely, NCC's program begins with a dedication of a number of basketball players (first sport) that HHS doesn't enjoy, it also includes a year round work ethic that begins with a coaching staff that provides year round opportunities and support (a lotta love for "their" boys) and another factor is the true support of the entire school (let's not kid anyone, this means recognition for those participating in the program, resources, and faculty/parent/student body support). Lacking in these and a few other things create an environment at HHS that is obviously not effective at this point in time.

 

Coaching, support, opportunity are some of the reasons why kids like B.Weyer added the gold to his uniform. Unless something changes, HHS will continue to share football glory and pay to watch regional championships played..............

 

I was stunned with the attitude of the football team and students. They were extremely sarcastic in their cheers, like there is even resignation in the student body about the basketball team. If they wouldn't have been honored by MaxPreps last night, how many students would have actually been there? It is going to take a superstar to come through Highlands again that people will want to watch play to turn this around. More players will want to play with him and more of the community will care about the state of the program. I don't know enough about FT. Thomas youth basketball to know whether one of those kids is coming through.

I've gotta weigh in here.........first, I happen to like Coach Flynn (but not as enthused with the assts) but the state of affairs w/b-ball at HHS are dangerously close to reaching critical. This game serves as reflection of many of these ills. Namely, NCC's program begins with a dedication of a number of basketball players (first sport) that HHS doesn't enjoy, it also includes a year round work ethic that begins with a coaching staff that provides year round opportunities and support (a lotta love for "their" boys) and another factor is the true support of the entire school (let's not kid anyone, this means recognition for those participating in the program, resources, and faculty/parent/student body support). Lacking in these and a few other things creates an environment at HHS that is obviously not effective at this point in time.

 

Coaching, support, opportunity are some of the reasons why kids like B.Weyer added the gold to his uniform. Unless something changes, HHS will continue to share football glory and pay to watch regional championships played..............

 

Hence my recommendation to get a younger ex Highlands guy in @ HHS that has the passion and energy to work with these boys in the summer and make even the footballer want to play some pickup ball. IMO it would make a difference. Although it did look like for the first couple of minutes last night that somebody had slipped a "5 hour energy Drink" in Flynn's afternoon tea.

A common theme with this program has been lack of offense going back 3 yrs. When Stewart and Crowley were Srs they scored 27 pts in a loss to Male at the Ashland tournament. Last yr they could barely break 50 pts. This yrthey get stuck on a number and have 5 min scoring droughts.

 

What is it? 3 yrs of Poor shooters? An offense that doesnt work? Injuries? Lack of skill development in the summer? YAll you gotta do is stop by The Hill on any summer evening and you will see Jimmy Pangallo working on individual drills with the Breds players. On any given morning at 6am you can stop by CovCath and you will find several Colonels doing a shootaround.

 

I can personally tell you Beuter has been playing in a 125 degree St. Thomas gym during the summer for years with older basketball players working on his game while Highlands boys (including my son) hang out @ convenient and Subway most nights. And it looked like it paid off at least last night.

I was stunned with the attitude of the football team and students. They were extremely sarcastic in their cheers, like there is even resignation in the student body about the basketball team. If they wouldn't have been honored by MaxPreps last night, how many students would have actually been there? It is going to take a superstar to come through Highlands again that people will want to watch play to turn this around. More players will want to play with him and more of the community will care about the state of the program. I don't know enough about FT. Thomas youth basketball to know whether one of those kids is coming through.

 

Interesting! I will agree with the student body support at sporting events. I have been saying this for years about football. If it's not a big game, you get get very few students showing up in mass. But I'm guessing it has nothing to do with the student body whether they are there cheering or being sincere with their cheers. That one made me laugh. If that is bothering someone, then grow some thicker skin. Funny, HHS basketball and Mike Listerman's name came up this morning at the barber shop. People are talking.

Hence my recommendation to get a younger ex Highlands guy in @ HHS that has the passion and energy to work with these boys in the summer and make even the footballer want to play some pickup ball. IMO it would make a difference. Although it did look like for the first couple of minutes last night that somebody had slipped a "5 hour energy Drink" in Flynn's afternoon tea.

 

This is the second or third time that you have brought this up and my question to you is do you have someone in mind? The last time that this job was open, I do not think there were coaches beating down the door to take over this program. As far as the coaches showing love and such, what do you want them to do that they are not already doing? The coaches have open gyms during the spring, have about a month or so of practices/games in the summer and during the season have shootarounds on Sunday's that are supervised by the coaches to do shooting drills and such. Some choose to take advantage of these and others do not show at all. At some point in all of this, each party (coaches and players) need to look in the mirror and ask themselves is they really want to do this and if so they need to spend a little time working on the finer points of their game. Anyone can throw a basketball at the basket, but can everyone handle the ball with pressure, make difficult passes, defend and lastly get themselves in position to rebound the basketball. These are the basic fundamentals of the game that seem to get lost as the kids get older because most are only worried about how many points they scored as are their parents. That is not basketball as I know it and was taught how to play it at a young age. I was a football and baseball player as well and always found a way to work on my game during the offseason whether it was going to the Armory, getting on my bike and riding to Southgate to play in a pickup game or going down the street or over to a friends house who happened to have a basket in their back yard. Get tired of hearing kids say they do not want to play for this coach or that coach because if you truly want to play the game you will work through whatever obstacles are in front of you.

This is the second or third time that you have brought this up and my question to you is do you have someone in mind? The last time that this job was open, I do not think there were coaches beating down the door to take over this program. As far as the coaches showing love and such, what do you want them to do that they are not already doing? The coaches have open gyms during the spring, have about a month or so of practices/games in the summer and during the season have shootarounds on Sunday's that are supervised by the coaches to do shooting drills and such. Some choose to take advantage of these and others do not show at all. At some point in all of this, each party (coaches and players) need to look in the mirror and ask themselves is they really want to do this and if so they need to spend a little time working on the finer points of their game. Anyone can throw a basketball at the basket, but can everyone handle the ball with pressure, make difficult passes, defend and lastly get themselves in position to rebound the basketball. These are the basic fundamentals of the game that seem to get lost as the kids get older because most are only worried about how many points they scored as are their parents. That is not basketball as I know it and was taught how to play it at a young age.

 

As I mentioned before I am relatively new to the Highlands program and did not attend Highlands so I'm not aware of any personally, my hope was that there would be that type of guy out there that would want to give it a shot. However from the looks of your response and all the talk about Mike Listerman coming back it doesn’t seem to be the case so I will drop the subject moving forward.